[Audio] Taoiseach agrees Medical card reviews are unacceptable

Both the Taoiseach and Tansiate have acknowledged that a current review of
discretionary medical cards by the HSE has been insensitive in some cases.

Speaking in Killarney earlier yesterday, ahead of the IMPACT
conference, Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore said for a person to receive three
letters in the space of two years asking them to prove a
continued entitlement was “a form of harassment”.

Then… speaking in Cork just hours later, where he had a number of
engagements, Taoiseach Enda Kenny admitted that bureacracy in the HSE was
causing hardship.

Earlier this week Cork Fine Gael TD Jerry Buttimer, who is chair of the
Oireachtas Heallh Commitee led a delegation which met HSE staff who
administer the medical card scheme to express concern.

TheCork.ie spoke with Taoiseach Enda Kenny . He said where a “medical card”
is cancelled there can be other options for a patient